Tuesday, September 25, 2012

KillerCon 4 at the Stratosphere, Las Vegas

I'm home from my first KillerCon, a horror convention in Las Vegas, and now I'm having a hard time figuring out where to start in my recap. I had a fantastic time. I met lots of cool people and reconnected with many familiar faces. And I found loads of new authors to read.

A personal highlight was participating in my first contest at a con. I won third place in the Creative Fiction contest on Saturday night. Participants had 20 minutes to write 200 words or less using five words: mongoose, forgiveness, plagiarism, zither, and butterknife. And we had to include the sentence, "I want to suck your cock." Then we read our work aloud. Just an overall great experience, even if I blushed a lot. All of the entries were creative and cool and I'd especially like to thank the judges: Mignon Fogarty, Jack Ketchum, Don D'Auria, and Roy Robbins.

Another highlight was when William F. Nolan signed my copy of "How to Write Horror Fiction," that I bought new in 1990. You could say I've been interested in horror for a long time--even if I've only recently started writing it seriously.

Maybe I should just shut up and share some camera phone pictures:


Looking up at the Stratosphere tower


Level 108 of the Stratosphere


A man in silhouette on one of Stratosphere's crazy rides


Happy Hour at the level 107 bar. Buy one martini, get one free.


Eliza Hirsch, my kick ass roommate


Me!


Mignon Fogarty teaches a Grammar Girl Workshop


Gene O'Neill holds up a copy of "The Burden of Indigo"


Guest of Honor Jack Ketchum reads from "The Woman"


R.J. Cavender teaches a Self-Editing Workshop


Mike McCarty and colleague (didn't catch his name) from KNB Efx Group Inc. apply zombie makeup


Four participants during the clichés in fiction panel: Monica O'Rourke, Hal Bodner, Don D'Auria, and Erik Williams


Guests of Honor at Closing Ceremonies: F. Paul Wilson, William F. Nolan, Kelley Armstrong, Jack Ketchum


Organizer Wrath James White thanks KillerCon volunteers at Closing Ceremonies

Unfortunately, this recap only scratches the surface.

KillerCon was an incredibly positive experience and I hope to be able to attend next year. I'm grateful to the horror community for being so open and welcoming to newcomers like myself. And now I'm freshly inspired to get writing again.

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